Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1890 — No Poisonous Insects. Serpents or Plants. [ARTICLE]

No Poisonous Insects. Serpents or Plants.

While discussing venomous reptiles, says Forest and Stream, it will per- ■ haps not be out of place to add a little , information, which seems to me re-1 markable and which will be news to nearly all who live east of the mountains. When I arrived on I'uget Sound I was informed that there were neither poisonous serpents, in- 1 sects nor plants on the shores or islands of the Sound. Having never seen a place entirely devoid of poison- ■ ous animal or vegetable life I was rather inclined to doubt the assertion, though assured by many old settlers, as well as new, that such was the ease. However, a careful investigation since then has convinced me that it is true. In all my hunting and : fishing expeditions I have never seen a specimen of poisonous reptile, insector plant. I notice an entire absence of both poison oak and ivy, which I have heretofore encountered ' wherever I have been. As far as I | can learn, what I have said in regard i to Puget Sound also holds true of all I the country lying west of the Cascade range.